Oscar Pineda-Catalan is an Associate Senior Instructional Professor at the University of Chicago’s Biological Sciences Collegiate Division. He has co-led the effort to redesign the Core Biology curriculum by incorporating a hands-on approach to scientific research and reasoning, immersing students in mentored research projects of their own design. Pineda-Catalan is a conservation biologist who has developed research and education programs to motivate and engage youth to pursue careers in science. He has managed programs that opened opportunities for hundreds of students to participate in structured research projects mentored by professional scientist: STEM-Out at UChicago in Collaboration with Clubes de Ciencia – Mexico, the Science Research Mentoring Program at the American Museum of Natural History, and the Urban Barcode Project, at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s DNA Learning Center. He has also collaborated with the New York Academy of Sciences in the Nobelist Mindset Program, a Malaysian Initiative to develop soft skills of young people to participate in science and with the Wildlife Conservation Society, training young professionals that work in conservation biology projects.